1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and apparatuses for attracting and destroying insects, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses that effectively attract and destroy bed bugs.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Bedbugs (or bed bugs) are small nocturnal insects of the family Cimicidae that live by hematophagy, that is by feeding on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded hosts. The common bedbug (Cimex lectularius) is the best adapted to human environments. It is found in temperate climates throughout the world and has been known since ancient times. When it feeds, the bug pierces the skin and withdraws the blood of its host. The bites cannot usually be felt until some minutes or hours later, as a dermatological reaction to the injected agents.
There are several means by which dwellings can become infested with bedbugs. People can often acquire bedbugs at hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfasts, as a result of increased domestic and international tourism, and bring them back to their homes in their luggage. They also can pick them up by inadvertently bringing infested furniture or used clothing to their household. Bedbugs may also travel between units in multi-unit dwellings, such as condominiums and apartment buildings, after being originally brought into the building by one of the above routes. This spread between units is dependent in part on the degree of infestation, on the material used to partition units (concrete is a more effective barrier to the spread of the infestation), and whether infested items are dragged through common areas while being disposed of, resulting in the shedding of bedbugs and bedbug eggs while being dragged.
During the daytime, bedbugs tend to stay out of the light, preferring to remain hidden in such places as mattress seams, mattress interiors, bed frames, nearby furniture, carpeting, baseboards, inner walls, tiny wood holes, or bedroom clutter. Bedbugs are very often found in beds, usually either in the seams of a mattress (usually the seams closest to the sleeper such as those on the edging of a mattress or box spring), in the boxspring, or within the structure of the bed itself. They can also be found in a wide variety of locations in a home, such as behind baseboards, behind a picture frame, within books (near the bed), in telephones, or radios near the bed, and within the folds of curtains.
In previous years, bedbug infestations were treated with chemicals. For example, the widespread use of DDT in the 1940s and 1950s was very effective in eradicating bedbugs from North America. Infestations remained common in many other parts of the world, however, and in recent years have begun to rebound in North America. Reappearance of bedbugs in North America has presented new challenges for pest control and, without DDT and similarly banned agents, no fully effective treatment is now in use. Another reason for recent increases in bedbug infestations is that pest control services today more often use low toxicity gel-based pesticides for control of cockroaches, the most common pest in structures, instead of residual sprays. However, gel-based insecticides primarily used today do not have any effect on bedbugs, as they are incapable of feeding on these baits. In any case, such treatments are costly and can put the homeowner out of the home for extended periods of time. Most professionals claim that it takes several treatments in order to be fully rid of the infestation. However, without being fully rid of the infestation, the bed bugs will just lay more eggs and continue to re-infest the home or other dwelling.
Several devices for treatment of bedbug infestations are known. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2007/0044372 discloses a bedbug monitoring device that attracts bed bugs, and retains the bed bugs or records their passage through the trap using an adhesive on a substrate. However, this device is intended to monitor the presence or absence of bedbugs, and does not provide a means for abating the presence of bedbugs.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2008/0148624 to Borth et al. discloses a bedbug monitoring device that detects chemicals (e.g., nitrophorin) that are indicative of the presence of bedbugs.
A suitcase-sized device for monitoring the presence or absence of bedbugs was disclosed in October 2008 by Cimex Science. The device includes a carbon dioxide canister and a heating device to monitor the presence or absence of bedbugs.
Effective treatment for bedbug infestations are needed in the art, and this invention is believed to be an answer to that need.